March 19, 2006
Honorable Alvaro Uribe
President of the Republic of Colombia
AND
Mr. Isaac Ivanovich
President, ECOPETROL
We write you on behalf of Amazon Watch, a U.S.-based non-profit environmental and human rights organization and the U’wa Defense Project that provides legal, community development, research & advocacy support to the U’wa people as they work to defend their life, land & cultural autonomy. We write to you to express our utmost concern with respect to renewed plans by ECOPETROL to initiate seismic testing and oil exploration on legally titled territories of the U’wa indigenous people. The U’wa, a traditional culture of 5,000 people, inhabit territory that spans over 5 departments – much of it pristine, fragile cloud forest, which has sustained the U’wa physically, culturally, and spiritually for millennia.
As you are aware, since the early 1990’s when Occidental Petroleum acquired the Samore / Siriri oil blocks, the U’wa have repeatedly expressed their strong opposition to oil exploitation both within their legally titled reserve, as well as on their ancestral homelands. The U’wa consistently maintain that the project will have tremendous and irreversible environmental, social, and cultural impacts that threaten the integrity and very survival of their people. The protracted struggle that culminated in OXY’s departure captured headlines and media attention worldwide. Thousands of Colombians including rural and farmers’ organizations, union leaders, lawmakers, environmentalists, scholars as well as international investors, scientists, and environmental and human rights defenders organized an unprecedented and truly historic world wide campaign in support of the U’wa people.
Today, the U’wa once again are calling on their allies in Colombia and internationally to declare their solidarity and to support the U’wa in their resistance to oil and gas activities planned in the heart of their territory.
On behalf of an international network of more than 5,000 U’wa supporters worldwide, Amazon Watch and the U’wa Defense Project write to urge your government to permanently abandon your plans for the Siriri and Catleya oil blocks, which overlap a major part of the “U’wa Resguardo Unido.” We call on your government and ECOPETROL to respect the unwavering decision of the U’wa People as expressed by repeated pronouncements by the U’wa Traditional Authority to reject all oil and gas exploration and exploitation on their sacred ancestral homelands.
We remind your government of the 1997 legal complaint brought by the U’wa to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the Organization of American States. At the request of Colombia’s ministry of foreign affairs, a team of OAS-Harvard University investigated the case and made a number of recommendations in June 1998 that the Colombian government subsequently approved in September 1998. Among the recommendations the Colombian government accepted were three important ones: 1) all oil activities be suspended inside the U’wa territory, 2) that the U’wa territory be delimited and legalized; and 3) that before any oil activities resume in the U’wa territory there be a process for “obtaining the consent of the U’wa to activities proposed for their territory.”
We believe any effort to move forward with oil and gas exploration and production in the Resguardo Unido violates both the spirit and letter of the Colombian government’s agreement to follow the OAS Harvard recommendations. Plans to proceed with the Catleya and Siriri projects without the U’wa’s consent violates both Colombian and international law which guarantee indigenous peoples the right to self determination for activities that affect their territories and way of life.
The U’wa territory contains montane cloudforests that scientists consider to be one of the planet’s most biologically diverse and most endangered ecosystems. The U’wa are traditional people who depend on clean water, intact forests, and biodiversity of flora and fauna for their physical and spiritual survival. The oil project will likely bring pollution, environmental degradation, and violence. It will also have devastating affects on the U’wa culture and way of life. The closest example of oil activity to the larger U’wa territory is in the department of Arauca, where it has been marred by violence and poor environmental practice, resulting in devastating socio-environmental impacts such as polluted local rivers and streams, soil, and ground water.
The environmental impact of oil extraction is only exacerbated by Colombia’s civil conflict. As has become standard through Colombia’s 40 years of conflict, oil infrastructure, has been a magnet for violence, often trapping innocent indigenous communities in the crossfire. The prospect of oil drilling on U’wa land will bring this reality to the heart of U’wa territory and threatens their daily livelihood and future survival.
The eyes of the international community are once again focused on the U’wa, the Colombian government, and this project. We urge you to unconditionally respect the rights and territory of the U’wa, and to abandon your plans of oil and gas exploration and exploitation from within the U’wa reserve and its surrounding area.
Respectfully,
Atossa Soltani
Executive Director
Amazon Watch
Ana Maria Murillo
Director
U’wa Defense Project
Cc: President of the Colombian Congress
Ministry of the Interior and Justice, Ethnicities Department
Ministry of the Environment, Livelihood, and Territorial Development
Ministry of Energy and Mines
Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Foreign Relations
U.S. Embassy Bogota
Colombian Embassy, Washington DC
